


Speaking Derekish

by JustJim



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:20:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28648929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustJim/pseuds/JustJim
Summary: Stiles discovers a few things about Derek as he stops paying attention to the words Derek is saying but looks for what he’s meaning. He discovers a whole new language.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 30





	Speaking Derekish

“And then he was cursing because he never agrees with anything I say, he doesn’t get that..-”

“Derek doesn’t curse, dude.”

Scott stopped talking to look at Stiles who, to be honest, hadn’t been paying that much attention to what his best bud had been ranting about. Because let’s face it, it was either about a Lacrosse game, about Allison, about how hard life was to be with a huntress or hating on Derek. Stiles cared, he really did but his busy mind was only capable of paying attention for so long before it would drift. The whole cursing thing had caught his attention though while Scott frowned at him with that adorable ‘I don’t get it’ look. “What?! Yes he does, he curses all the time.”

“Nope.” He popped the P with exaggeration as the other boy’s frown only deepened. “Pretty sure he doesn’t curse.”

“You’re delusional.” Scott decided on and with a huffed whatever, went back to the topic he had been on while the young Stilinski resumed his thinking. Was he delusional? He had been sure the Hale didn’t curse all that much. He stuck with idiot and moron, said frigging instead of fucking and the exclamation to indicate surprise was a standard ‘Oh my God.’ Stiles noticed these things, you know. However, he wasn’t as sure as he could have been so this warranted some closer investigating for sure.

* * *

Of course, he attacked this new mystery with the same gusto as always, keeping notes, drawings, scribbles and if possible, snapshots. Over the weeks he was watching the local sourwolf closely, with the sole purpose of catching him on cursing, only….there’s so much more to notice. Once he stopped reacting to the words and only paying attention to them in a literal sense, stopped having emotional responses to their stunted communication because he was more invested in what the words were, things started to shift.

There was no surprise about Derek’s pretty horrible way of communicating, because he barely did it and if he did, it was thrown out as blunt as possible with lots of glares, snark and eyebrow movement. Raised by wolves, Stiles had joked once, which he was starting to regret now. He knew, deep down he knew, Derek wasn’t good at any of this because he had lost his parents at sixteen and hadn’t been able to be raised into normal skills after that. Too busy to deal with all the personal trauma, everything had been halted, which is why the older man probably kept gravitating towards teens even now. He was barely out of his teens himself with his emotional maturity. No, what really started to be visible was the way Derek did communicate like he was raised by wolves. Visceral instead of oral and once Stiles had discovered it, there was no unseeing it. He had researched wolves, okay, pack behavior and such. And Derek wasn’t like them, wasn’t raised human, he was raised werewolf. To him, they were probably the weirdos with their chatter and behavior.

Derek didn’t curse, Stiles had been right with that. But he growled and snarled and looked so darkly at people, that it was understandable the others thought he DID curse. He didn’t do it out loud with words, yet everything about the way he said things would suggest cursing was involved, internally. So much cursing.

For all his not touching and growly snarls, he was unknowingly very touchy. Small touches on shoulders or necks, small shoulder bumps and light grazes. Something people wouldn’t notice unless they were paying attention to it, Derek especially did it with Isaac. And everything coming out of Derek’s mouth was pretty much focused on keeping the pack safe, protection, defense, attack mode. The bluntness made more sense because the focus wasn’t on being social or nice, it was about keeping everybody alive one more day. And Derek said it best when he wasn’t saying it at all. It was easier to read him now, Stiles paid close attention to the head tilts, the eyebrow movements, the way his body held itself, it was a language all on its own. A sad language which was constantly misinterpreted by the others, completely ignored and disregarded because they all only heard his angry words. And he couldn’t help himself, he started thinking back on past interactions, on what he all had missed himself. A whole freaking lot, that’s what. It made him feel sick to his stomach because he was supposed to see shit like that, and how could he have missed out and probably hurt somebody who…maybe was a friend? Maybe. The answer was simple. He had missed it because Derek never made much of an effort to let others in, to explain anything which included himself.

Not again.

After another grueling pack meeting which had ended in discontent faces all around, Stiles lingered behind as the others left, Derek giving the frowny face when he noticed. “What.” He barked out and the teen wondered if proper infliction and use of question marks in a sentence were about as absent as Derek ‘s eyebrows were in shift to werewolf.

“I’m sorry.” Stiles said and the frown turned into surprised eyebrow raising because the other man clearly didn’t follow why the human felt the need to be sorry.

“For…”

Again, what was with the not asking questions as they should be asked? “For what happened with Gerard, Scott making you give the bite and how we all ignored you after.”

The questionable eyebrows went slightly pinched in Derek Hale’s classic bitch face of ‘what the fuck are you even on about, Stiles’. Yes, he had added his own name to that look because he had noticed he seemed to bring it out, a lot. In this case, it was an understandable look because the whole Gerard thing was a while ago and nothing in the meeting of today even hinted towards that moment so Stiles could understand why Derek felt like he was missing out on a whole conversation predating this one.

“You’ve been reading your diary.” Derek deadpanned.

Stiles snorted amused at the snark Derek threw his way with the proper amount of shading the wolf was capable of handing out. It was one of the reasons why he hated and liked spending time together, the quips and bickering was a thing between them. “No, I’ve been reading you.”

While the human had been expecting the raising of walls and shutting of gates and Derek just balking at the idea of getting this personal, he did none of that. He sighed and nodded in understanding, some tension bleeding away. “So that’s what you’ve been doing the past weeks.”

“Dude! I…-” Spluttering at being caught all this time, he felt a little insulted he hadn’t been as smooth about it as he thought he had been. And then he felt guilty, and why even would he feel that now, fuck Derek Hale and his secret language he could now read. Yeah, he felt guilty for being creeper and probably making Derek all kinds of uncomfortable with his close observations. But come on, Derek was a creeper all the time too so…maybe not as guilty.

“Look, it’s all your fault for not using words like normal people but then I realized you’re not normal people, you’re like normal werewolf. Which still doesn’t excuse you because you need to learn to use words, Derek but I realized too that I missed out on a whole plethora of Derek speak and I should have seen it sooner. What you all did, what Scott did to you with the whole non-con bite after you saved his life because of Freakazoid Argent Mom. We fucked up, no, scratch that, I fucked up because the others don’t really speak your language but I should have so….I’m sorry.”

Derek had listened to the onslaught of words with this weird blank look on his face, as if he couldn’t follow what just happened. And then his face crumbled into this whole pained look and Stiles knew what was about to leave his mouth. The whole ‘I deserved it’ spiel the older man was so good at. Because he truly believed he didn’t deserve anything nice and acted like it, and they all had enabled that behavior all this time, using him as the scapegoat because he didn’t behave as the rest of them.

“Nope, no, you don’t get to say that. I’m onto you now and this….” He motioned to the blame face Derek was sporting. “This isn’t going to work on me again. Dude, I totally speak your language now and it’s going to be awesome! You and me, bud, we’re going to be getting along now, yeah?”

“Like you give me a choice.” Derek huffed.

“No way. I’m going to be the best friend you ever had and you’re not getting rid of me now, I’ve got your back. Which is a very nice back so it’s not really that much of a crime to have.” Right, maybe he should have taken his meds so he would have had more of a filter. Derek didn’t really react much to it, which Stiles now knew meant he liked but didn’t know what to do with it, yet.

“Stiles….”

“Yeah buddy?”

“Don’t call me dude.”


End file.
